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Poster: Barb EQ Date: Oct 21, 2005 9:27am
Forum: feature_films Subject: Charade Gone

I was about to download it but missed my chance. Does this mean it's not going to be available anymore? I noticed Wikipedia has the status of availibility but no details on why the movie was pulled from archive.org.

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Poster: KGEMwalt Date: Oct 24, 2005 7:39am
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Charade Gone

Me too, I was ready to download Charade for a Cary Grant Film Festival for our Public Access station. Is it gone forever?

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Poster: Grimwig Date: Oct 24, 2005 8:49am
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Charade Gone

I fortunately got to download and watch it before it was deleted. However-however, if the file was NOT public domain, I want to be informed so that I can get rid of it, thereby having a nice, crime-free harddrive. If my harddrive is a criminal, I'll eat my own head!

Best wishes,
Grimwig

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Poster: Aaron.Walkhouse Date: Oct 24, 2005 10:57am
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Charade Gone

Take another look at it and see if the copyright notice is present. If not, you can keep the file.

No doubt someone complained and the Archive decided to take down that page immediately rather than investigate and verify the claim first because it is far easier to play it safe.

Even when the claim would inevitably be proven false, the fraudulent claimant could press the matter long enough to make the pretrial process of discovery quite expensive. All it takes for such a fraud to succeed is the threat that they might get away with not being forced to recompense the Archive for legal costs.

Eventually the initial complaint may be tested and the person who sent it may be charged for the fraud under the appropriate laws but the Archive is under no obligation to protect the public domain from such abuses, and we should not expect it to take a stand on this matter.

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Poster: Greg Przywara, author of IVD Date: Oct 24, 2005 3:47pm
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Charade Gone

I believe Universal has reclaimed Charade as they recently released a double feature DVD with that title paired up with a loose remake. I wouldn't be surprised if another PD warhorse His Girl Friday gets removed from here soon as Columbia has this on their DVD label. What the studios fail to realize is that when they're reclaiming stuff from the public domain they are stealing from us, the public, and then they're so quick to sue filesharers. Hypocrites!

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Poster: Aaron.Walkhouse Date: Oct 24, 2005 8:23pm
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Charade Gone

Oho! What have we here?

I just looked at this movie and at 00:02:18 I find:

MCMLXIII BY UNIVERSAL PICTURES COMPANY, INC. and STANLEY DONEN FILMS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

The only part missing is the word "Copyright" or the copyright symbol, which was absolutely required.
I wonder if they would sue Maurice Binder ( http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0082800/bio ) if he was still alive today. ;]

This post was modified by Aaron.Walkhouse on 2005-10-25 03:23:14

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Poster: KGEMwalt Date: Oct 25, 2005 3:11am
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Charade Gone

It seems if Universal would do a superb resoration of the film they then could copyright that and let us have PD copies that are good, but not worthy of copyright

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Poster: Fallout boy Date: Nov 16, 2005 1:45pm
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Charade Gone

There seems to be a misconception here about the DVD version - once a print of a film has fallen into public domain it cannot be copyrighted again, "reclaiming copyright" is unconstitutional. The new DVD version is a restoration, that specific version may be copyrighted as a derivative work but the original print is and always will be public domain.

This post was modified by Fallout boy on 2005-11-16 21:45:47

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Poster: Campfire Date: Jan 8, 2006 5:19am
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Charade Gone

Copyrights on movies can get messy and complicated, which usually works in the studios' favor. Even if by some oversight the copyright for the movie Charade was invalid, I'd bet that the familiar MUSIC was copyrighted separately, and that could be used to restrict the movie it was a part of. That's how the public domain It's A Wonderful Life was withdrawn from public domain--it was discovered that the music score was still under a separate copyright. In a similar case, Rear Window, the movie, has been public domain for years, but is controlled by the fact that the short story it is based on is still copyrighted.